Google Ranking For New Sites: Is There A Delay?

There has been much discussion in recent months about an interesting phenomenon that seems to show up with new websites on Google: They will get indexed, get good rankings for their keywords for a month or so, and then completely disappear for awhile. After about 3 months, rankings for many seem to start a gradual climb up the mountain.

Obviously, there has been much speculation about whether or not new sites are receiving "special" treatment on Google, or if these fluctuations are just part of the normal shifts that take place on re-indexing. Since Google has made many major shifts to their ranking algorithm during the past few months, it was difficult to really gather statistics on the behavior of new listings.

At this point, it seems fairly certain that Google does, in fact, give a different type of treatment to new site listings. Many different reasons have been suggested, but no one knows for certain. Many webmasters believe that it is another attempt on Google's part to discourage spam: Affiliate domains, doorway pages, and template sites have long been popular ways of getting a lot of traffic and getting it quickly. However, if they will drop from Google for a period of months and then have to "prove" themselves, then it may no longer be cost-effective to spam Google that way.

This is certainly one possibility, and it makes sense to some degree; however, it also penalizes legitimate new sites. This seems a high price to pay for trying to slow down spam, and goes against Google's stated intentions of providing equal opportunity for all legitimate websites that meet their requirements. I think it's possible that we may be seeing nothing more than a new site being rewarded for offering fresh content. After a few spider crawls, if the content does not change, then rankings will adjust appropriately. It's well-known that Google does reward sites for routine updates and fresh content. Many newer sites do not make these types of routine updates, and therefore will need to compensate by building the same types of valuable backlinks, and higher page ranks, that every other site needs.

So, is there anything special that webmasters or marketers should do for new sites, to try to ensure strong Google rankings? In my opinion, the same rules apply that we have stated numerous times in this blog: Your best bet is always to design an informative website, with good navigation and a lot of useful information for the visitor. Write good solid content with a reasonable number of keywords. Pursue sound, legitimate marketing practices such as relevant backlinks, and consider doing some email or some PPC if you want to give your site an early boost in popularity. You won't rise to the top of Google immediately and stay there, but you WILL get the rankings you need if you can just be a little patient -- and you'll get good rankings in other places too. After all, Google does not rule the world!

Second-guessing Google has become practically an industry in itself. In this case, it's fun to speculate, but in the end it really doesn't change anything from a practical standpoint.